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Councilwoman Says Century Is Not Following Purchasing Rules, Needs To Cut Health Insurance Costs
July 30, 2018
Century’s council president said the town is not following proper purchasing procedures, and she also said the town needs to cut back on employee insurance costs.
“Until we develop and adopt a procurement policy, we need to follow our charter,” Ann Brooks said.
The town charter states:
“The council shall request and receive bids and award contracts involving expenditures of Five-Hundred Dollars ($500.00) or more. Except in emergencies, the council must approve the expenditure of amounts greater than One Hundred Ninety-Nine Dollars($199.00) and less than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), prior to the expenditure.”
Brook said the council needs to request and receive bids and vote on contracts. “We are not allowed delegate this responsibility to anyone else according to our charter. We have not been following our charter regarding purchases, but we need to start doing so.”
She questioned the planned purchase of two pickup trucks. At a recent council meeting, Mayor Henry Hawkins presented price quotes from a Pensacola dealership totaling $80,655 for the trucks without receiving bids. Almost two weeks ago, NorthEscambia.com made a public record’s request for the town’s specifications used to obtain the bids, but the information has not been received.
Brooks obtained a price quote for what she believed to be two similar trucks at $57,498 from Hub City Ford in Crestview because they are the closest dealership on the state bid list. However, town officials said the vehicles quoted by the Crestview dealership were not adequate for their intended work purpose.
“We must start trimming our budget,” the council president said as she took aim at the health insurance benefits offered to town employees.
“We have to stop being so generous. We provide the Cadillac of health insurance plans for our employees, and we are paying 99 percent of the employees’ insurance cost and 78 percent of the families’ cost. We cannot afford to continue to do this, or we are going to…result in that future financial emergency that the auditors warned us about,” Brooks said.
Comments
19 Responses to “Councilwoman Says Century Is Not Following Purchasing Rules, Needs To Cut Health Insurance Costs”
I’ve been living here all my life and my dad worked for the town 20 some odd years and trust me there insurance was not the Cadillac of insurance, a Kia maybe. I’m so sick of these imposter wannabe politicians screwing with people lives especially council members who are not worthy to be voted or given these positions. IMPEACH EVERY SINGLE ONE IF THEM. And please it’s not hard to figure who I am so do not reply if your cowardly hiding behind a spiffy computer name.
Bet you guys feel so empowered making smart comments like that, honestly if you have such a problem with it why dont you guys volunteer your time to make the town better? This place is filled with people that dont want anything, sit around all day watching tv, and crackheads. Yet the people are always quick to jump on the employees mistakes. As for the admin not being able to bring in new jobs (chris) century doesnt have anything for jobs to come for, Century is a place for people to come and spend their final days in peace and quiet. Get off your butts and make a difference besides complaining about it.
Just stop the bleeding off of finances and close the Century government down. The administrations (past and present) have proven they cannot attract new business to the town, and cannot in any way shape or form manage finances.
“or we are going to…result in that future financial emergency that the auditors warned us about,” Brooks said.
Going to?!? I think your there!! How can someone that’s served on the council for so long plead ignorance? I didn’t know, nobody told me. It’s their fault. It’s slways someone else’s fault and someone else’s responsibility. Time to clean house.
REGARDING:
“CNG is a great idea, then they can spend another Million building a pumping station to fill up two trucks.”
Is that how much they cost?
Why would Century need a SECOND fueling site? I wasn’t proposing a new program, just assuming a continuation. It looks like it’s there when I pass by and has been for a while.
http://www.northescambia.com/2013/10/century-joins-other-local-governments-in-natural-gas-vehicle-push
David for clarity
I agree with clueless Bob. These problems didn’t just happen with the new administration. This has been an on going problem. The gas dept didn’t just start losing money, it’s been that way for a while. The council needs to stop playing team sports(shirts vs skins) and work together as one united team.
I agree with @fred and also say, why now? Does no one else see anything fishy about the timing of all of the sudden issues being raised and coming from the same person. Really Why now? I believe these so called “new” issues are not new at all. They already existed but no one dare wanted to attach them to the former mayors. Well, why would they when they were getting loans, offices built and other free stuff? But with audits showing some flaws, the newcomers get the brunt of what others caused and become the face of the problem. Not fair and it will take real leadership and s team effort to get things back on track. It won’t happen with someone playing politics.
Someone else said it in another post and I see a power struggle also and it has to be tension in the room. It would be great if they all got smarter, dropped the tactics and got down to the real business but they would have to stop the nit picky diversions first. Something tells me this will all go in the background again after the upcoming elections are over.
What happened to the two new ECAT vans that were purchased by the county to be parked there at City Hall.
happy days are here again…. not.
haven’t heard much from the mayor lately, wonder why?
@David Hule Green. CNG is a great idea, then they can spend another Million building a pumping station to fill up two trucks.
Don’t know if ability to use compressed natural gas was included either time, but that can raise the cost while extending the life and reducing the operating costs.
As to not already noticing violations of the charter, it is common to come in assuming rules and regulations are being followed. Once you realize that they are not, it is reasonable to start to check other actions. Also, when you are attacked for whatever you do, you are tempted to keep your head down and try to solve the problem quietly. We would not know if that happened or not.
David for better days
The Century town government is broken and unnecessary. It serves no purpose that the county couldn’t do better and more efficiently, it exists solely to give a select few control of the purse strings, and they betrayed that trust long ago. Loans to council members, books in a state of chaos, no bid contracts, failure to keep agreements with contractors, failure to provide public documents to the press, failure to follow their own charter, failure to pay state taxes, failure to cover employee paychecks, the list of disappointments is endless. When is enough enough? It’s time to end this, it’s well past what the citizens should be made to endure.
Oh, I wouldn’t start throwing around unfounded allegations of bribes, kickbacks or sinister behavior without some evidence to back it up. Low bids are easy to get, and usually are on items that can’t meet the job requirements. I do wonder how this got past Ms. Brooks all these years, and she just found out about it. She’s a CPA, and I think has been on the town council for some time. Part of being a CPA is internal controls and auditing. Seems she would have taken action or at least addressed her inaction. Whatever the case, taking action now is preferable to just hand wringing and more inaction. I hope the mayor will listen and guide his decisions accordingly.
As a county employee I purchased several vehicles for the Sheriff’s office and as if we didn’t have money to buy new we went on govdeals.com and purchased vehicles from other agency’s or called and a lot agency’s if large enough will help by donating vehicles to smaller agencies. Hub City Ford will make sure you get what you need at the best price Speak to a manager by the name Sonic. There are several dealerships through out the state with state contracts.Sheriff Morgan always wanted us to shop around to get the best deal. You might also call for the money loaned toa council person to be paid in full never of a city loaning a employee money.
Just curious, can you post a picture of the two trucks they got to have for 80k and the other 2 from Crestview?
WOUNDER HOW MUCH KICK BACK THERE IS ON THE NEW TRUCKS?????
sounds like some one needs some new jewelry, jail time.
can’t follow the charter then get them out.
She failed to say the city should disband ASAP.
Just a Point; These violations of the town charter are not “not following purchasing rules” as one councilman states, it is a violation of the law. You have to understand that the Town Charter is not a set of guidelines, it is State Law. and violations of this law should be investigated and prosecuted by the State authorities.
Wow, this is a unique way of dealing with a financial crises; We are broke and can not meet payroll and taxes, so let’s go buy a few new trucks. Employees will not be able to buy groceries, but they will be styling while they ride around in new trucks.